Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 174: Getting the Divine Weapon, Yet Still Suffering!

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: Getting the Divine Weapon, Yet Still Suffering!

Wang Dawei stepped forward and found that what followed was another long stretch of story dialogue.

Li Huanzhen could ask the old monk many questions about himself and this world.

Heilong clearly had no interest in this—if it were up to him, he would definitely skip right past it all without a second thought.

But Wang Dawei still carefully read through all the story text and even forced Heilong to give a brief overview of his storyline.

It was while interpreting this part of the story that Wang Dawei suddenly realized something.

When speaking to the old monk before the BOSS battle, the old monk addressed him as "you all!"

However, in all previous NPC story dialogues, the term used was "you."

This meant that the old monk seemed to be the only NPC in this world who could see that they were actually two people.

When Li Huanzhen mentioned that he could see two worlds, the old monk did not show any surprise; instead, he nodded as if it were to be expected.

"Of course, you are the Life Navel."

Meanwhile, what the Mechanical Monk said to Heilong was, "Of course, you are a debug program."

In the Immortal Cultivation World, the so-called Life Navel is actually an ancient term for the umbilical cord.

"Life Navel: When the fetus is in the mother’s womb, the navel is connected to the amnion, and the fetus breathes with the mother. Once out of the womb, the umbilical cord is severed, and a point of primal essence belongs to the dantian of the life gate. The navel dries and falls off naturally, like a melon detaching from its stem, hence the navel is the human Life Navel."

In the narrative of the Immortal Cultivation World, Li Huanzhen is the Life Navel connecting the two worlds, hence he can often see another world. But because this power is too strong, beyond the limits of what an ordinary person can endure, he experiences various mental issues such as schizophrenia, dual personalities, and auditory and visual hallucinations.

As the Life Navel, Li Huanzhen is indeed one of the very few in this world who could wield the immense power of the Relic Sword.

But the old monk also said that even if Li Huanzhen used the Relic Sword to make one of the worlds normal, the other would fall into the abyss of despair, and he would still frequently travel between the two worlds.

In the science fiction world, however, Li Huanzhen is a debug program.

To the Mechanical Monk, this world is a vast program, and all machinery operates according to complex procedures.

Li Huanzhen’s AI is part of the debug program, which is why, although he is a cyborg, he can impact other mechanical life through AI.

Once Li Huanzhen’s AI directly infiltrates the intelligence programs of other machines, it can cause them to short-circuit and fail like a hacker invasion, or even throw their AIs into complete chaos, inciting them to destructively turn on one another.

Similarly, if the debug program that is Li Huanzhen could leverage the power of the "architect’s development tool" known as the Relic Sword, he could easily alter the Mechanical World.

However, since the debug program that is Li Huanzhen consists of a collection of copious erroneous codes and illegal programs, it would gradually become a super illegal program. Therefore, whether he chose to erase all mechanical life’s AI or to awaken consciousness in all mechanical life, it would lead to an accumulation of more and more errors in his own code, making his AI program increasingly chaotic.

The old monk’s flesh under his robes began to ignite, "There are two Relic Swords, one named ’Zhen,’ and the other named ’Huan.’

"If you choose ’Zhen,’ it means you lean towards choosing the world of the present. You could use this sword to eliminate most errors in this world;

"If you choose ’Huan,’ it means you lean towards another world. It can deepen your connection with the other world, sending back entities that should belong to that world.

"How you choose depends on whether you want to see the reality of this world or the illusion?

"Or to say... Is reality itself an illusion?"

As the old monk spoke, the flames on his body grew fiercer and the surrounding candlestands toppled, igniting nearby tables and kneeling pads, and the fire gradually spread to the giant Buddha statue behind him.

In the raging blaze, the withered-faced old monk extended his right hand in an eerie posture toward the back of his neck and slowly pulled his spinal column out from the back of his neck.

Under the scorching flames, the monk’s white spine began to discolor, developing dark yellow and black spots and lines—its material shifting from bone to stone or jade.

Wang Dawei decisively chose "Zhen," while Heilong automatically obtained "Huan."

Clearly, the swords correspond to each other in the two worlds.

Wang Dawei made this choice because they were mostly dealing with the storyline of the Immortal Cultivation World at the time, and "Zhen," corresponding to "the present world," aka the Immortal Cultivation World, would be more helpful for their subsequent plot progression.

Upon acquiring the divine artifact, the two could hardly wait to use it.

The Relic Sword was indeed cool, although it couldn’t be used to directly attack enemies in normal times and could only be carried on the back. It had unique martial skills; although they were just two ordinary slashes, they came with very explosive and cool special effects.

The special effect of "Zhen" was to produce afterimages on the entire screen, accompanied by brilliant and bright special effects. The AI of the Flesh Monsters hit by it would become disoriented and transform into friendly units, helping the players attack enemies.

The special effect of "Huan" was to split the screen, as if it had opened a space rift, faintly revealing the scenery of another world. Its effects were dark in color—the mechanical monsters struck by it would be sent directly to a random location in the other world.

These swords were indeed very powerful, not only could they be used to cut down small fry like grass, but they could also deal high amounts of energy damage or direct damage to the BOSSes.

After leaving the Monastery of True Words, the two of them headed confidently toward Crane Valley and the Immortal Village!

With a divine weapon in hand and having grasped the trick of "Chop Three Frameworks in One," wouldn’t they effortlessly slay the upcoming bosses?

Then... they got beaten to a pulp by the Spirit Ape and the Crane-Riding Immortal in Crane Valley.

...

Watching the continuous influx of negative emotions in front of her, Lilith let out a delighted laugh once again.

It seemed she had worried over nothing!

Previously, players had learned the secret of "Chop Three Frameworks in One" and successfully obtained the Relic Sword, which had made her unconsciously worry for a bit.

If the players really started enjoying themselves, wouldn’t the negative emotions be done for?

But the plot at this moment was indeed just as Gu Fan had predicted, the increase in negative emotions had slowed down a bit, but overall, they were still growing!

Because for the average clumsy player, even if they had mastered the technique of "Chop Three Frameworks in One," they were still bound to take a beating.

They had thought the Great General was the peak, but they didn’t realize that this was just the beginning.

The bosses that followed became more and more unreasonable!

Take the two bosses of Crane Valley, for instance. The Spirit Ape was a hyperactive monkey with odd and unpredictable moves, completely different from the logical fighting style of humanoid bosses, making "Chop Three Frameworks in One" totally ineffective.

And the Crane-Riding Immortal was even more outrageous, flying chaotically on a crane while occasionally drawing down lightning with the divine talismans in hand.

Players had to deflect the crane’s talon strikes and pecks and also jump to catch the lightning strikes from the Crane-Riding Immortal, or use a grappling hook at the right moment to latch onto the crane’s neck and fly over to attack.

It’s true that players had gotten the Relic Sword, but so what?

The difficulty of the upcoming bosses had noticeably increased, and they had clearly taken the variable of the Relic Sword into account!

Even if the players could use the Relic Sword to reduce some bosses’ energy or health, they were still doomed to be abused.

For example, Wang Dawei and Heilong, the "blind cripple duo," were rubbed raw by the Crane-Riding Immortal and couldn’t defeat it at all.

What’s worse, at this stage, various bugs in the game scene started to appear even more frequently.

For instance, while fighting the boss, a prop in the scene would suddenly glitch, trapping Li Huanzhen momentarily. Players, engrossed in fighting the boss, would suddenly be jarred by an inexplicable bump or experience illusions or hallucinations. The slightest distraction would result in the boss killing them instantly, sending the negative emotions through the roof!

Wang Dawei and Heilong were tormented so badly they almost had their determination broken by the Crane-Riding Immortal.

"Brother Long, how about we explore other areas first, level up and stuff, and stop fixating on this boss..." Wang Dawei suggested.

Heilong, also confused and dizzy from the thrashing, nodded in agreement, "Sounds good. It seems we got some materials from exploring the map just now. I’ll see if I can upgrade the Relic Sword."

The two returned to the previous scenes, looking for things they might have missed.

In the two-player mode of "Ascension," the two players can move a certain distance apart from each other but must remain in the same larger scene, and once a boss battle is triggered, the other player is automatically teleported there.

So, Heilong went back to Jiangdu City to fight two elite monsters they had previously skipped, and Wang Dawei, with nothing better to do, flew around aimlessly, using his grappling hook to snag walls in the air.

"Hey, Brother Long, I feel like I’m getting nowhere with this game. It’s just too hard!

"And I’m not really helping much, just dragging you down."

Heilong hurriedly replied, "Don’t talk like that, Brother David. Don’t we need your analysis of the plot to reach a perfect ending? Plus, you’re still important for popping potions and healing me during boss fights, which is pretty crucial."

Wang Dawei sighed silently. If he had been playing alone, he would have surely given up by now, but now he had no choice but to keep going.

However, at that moment, something unexpected happened.

As he was traveling by grappling hook, he casually pressed the jump key and suddenly saw Li Huanzhen kick off the wall and by some fluke landed on a platform they had never reached before!

This was a small platform on the outer wall of Jiangdu City that Wang Dawei had never visited before, as it seemed impossible to reach.

But now, by some stroke of luck, he was standing on it.

"Huh? I can actually get up here?"

Wang Dawei felt surprised. He subconsciously walked forward a bit, only to see Li Huanzhen slip and rapidly fall toward the bottom.

Then, with a "splash," he landed in the moat of Jiangdu City that was normally outside the playable map!